"With a fearless spirit, carry out a long-term struggle, uphold justice by overthrowing violence, protect the integrity of the country, and strive for the survival of the nation..."
The above words were spoken by Chang Kaishen when he decided to move the capital to Luoyang. It sounds inspiring, but behind the scenes it is terrible. Both Chang Kaishen and Wang Zhaoming are eager to end the "Battle of Songhu" as soon as possible.
The central government is completely out of money. President Lin Sen even called the country in early February: "From now on, all personnel serving in various government agencies will have their salaries stopped and only a certain amount of living expenses will be paid each month to maintain their personal lives."
Pity those grassroots civil servants in the Republic of China who had no outside income. They couldn't even get their salary, and even basic living expenses had to be "discretionary".
The central government has been fighting wars for years, and then encountered nationwide floods. It has no inventory and no tax revenue. It’s a damned thing to have money!
The people of Luoyang were even more troubled. A sudden disaster struck from the sky, and the central government decided to move the capital here out of nowhere. So many people moved in at once, and the city streets were overcrowded, and supplies could not keep up, causing prices to skyrocket. The income of the people at the bottom could not afford to buy them.
Pick up grain rice.
The old guy Zhang Ji proposed the bad idea of moving the capital to Luoyang, and Chang Kaishen agreed without much thought.
The initial capital relocation work was carried out when the Japanese army attacked Shanghai. The 19th Route Army was still fighting in Songhu, and the central government headed by Chang Kaishen began to flee. It can even be described as "fleeing in a panic"
, even the important central government documents had no time to pack and pack them, so they were bundled in sacks and packed into trains to be transported to Luoyang.
What a coward. The Japanese army only attacked Shanghai for a few days, and the Nanjing government fled to Luoyang in droves.
In the past two months, Chang Kaishen, Wang Zhaoming, Song Ziwen and others did not dare to stay in Nanjing for a long time. They lived on separate trains and traveled back and forth on the Longhai Line. Today is Luoyang, tomorrow is Zhengzhou, and the day after tomorrow may be
Arrive in Kaifeng, Xuzhou, or suddenly appear in Shanghai or Nanjing.
No one knows what they are busy with, and some people even jokingly call it "the National Government on the train."
With the panic attitude of the central government, if the Japanese army attacks at all costs, I am afraid that East and South China will be easily occupied by Japan just like Northeast China.
It is said that Zhang Xueliang has no backbone and abandons the Northeast without firing a shot. In fact, Chang Kaishen is not much better. Not to mention the eldest brother, the second brother, everyone is pretty much the same.
Fortunately, the Japanese did not have sufficient preparations to invade China. As early as early March, the Japanese army declared an armistice with the mediation of Britain, France and the United States, and did not further invade Shanghai.
Even so, Chang Kaishen did not dare to relax as the Japanese troops had not withdrawn yet. Although he had a vague sense of the Japanese's true intentions, he was still unsure, for fear that little Japan would go crazy and not give face to the great powers.
Ever since, the work of moving the capital to Luoyang has been going on.
Now that all the central agencies have almost moved here and are crowded together in Luoyang City, only He Yingqin is left in Nanjing to maintain military and public security, Luo Wenqian is in charge of foreign affairs, and Minister of Industry Chen Gongbo and garrison commander Chen Mingshu and others handle related affairs.
As for President Lin Sen, he is staying peacefully in Luoyang. He is old and does not want to do anything. He just wants to do whatever he wants.
Speaking of Chairman Lin, a dignified head of state, he is good at "governing by doing nothing". Chen was appointed by Lin Sen as the commander of the Luoyang garrison. He was so happy that he came to thank him, but Lin Sen avoided seeing him and asked his secretary to pass the message.
He said: "The military attaches go directly to see Chang Kaishen, and the civil servants go directly to see Wang Zhaoming. Don't come to my place."
You see, Chairman Lin is so good at being a hands-off shopkeeper. He has learned the essence of Huang Lao’s studies.
…
Zhou Hexuan took a train along the Longhai Line to Luoyang. He saw a sea of people at the train station, and all central government agencies and governments at all levels moved here. Although Nanjing is still the capital, most of the military and political personnel have moved to Luoyang to accompany the capital. The current situation is chaotic.
Just like a wet market.
Zhou Hexuan waited foolishly for a long time at the train station, but couldn't get a rickshaw. Because there were too many people, when he finally found an empty rickshaw, more than a dozen customers immediately competed for it. The rickshaw drivers in Luoyang were doing a very good business.
"Brother Zhou, you have come to Luoyang too!" Someone suddenly shouted.
Zhou Hexuan looked back and saw that it was Huang Jinrong, the leader of the Shanghai Youth Gang. He immediately smiled and said: "Boss Huang, long time no see!"
Huang Jinrong introduced his companions with a smile: "Brother Zhou, this is Mr. Wang Xiaolai and Wang, chairman of the National Chamber of Commerce and member of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Anti-Japanese Association."
Zhou Hexuan clasped his fists and said: "It turns out to be Mr. Wang, I have admired him for a long time!"
"Mr. Zhou is joking, it should be because I have admired you for a long time." Wang Xiaolai laughed.
Wang Xiaolai was a scholar by birth, participated in the Liberation Party, and later went into business and opened many cotton mills, becoming a well-known figure in Shanghai's business community. However, secretly he was a gangster from the Youth Gang, and had close contacts with Chang Kaishen, Chen Qimei and others, and belonged to Shanghai's political and business circles.
and a well-known figure in the punk industry.
This time the National Disaster Conference was held in Luoyang, which mainly discussed issues of national salvation and disaster relief. Representatives from all walks of life across the country were invited, and it was somewhat like a National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference meeting.
It's just that big gangsters like Huang Jinrong and Wang Xiaolai are here for a meeting. What kind of national crisis meeting is this?
"Hey, that's Sun Xiucai?" Huang Huangrong said, pointing into the distance.
Wang Xiaolai looked back and felt a little unhappy. He cursed: "This person has the nerve to come to a national crisis meeting?"
The "Sun Xiucai" Huang Huangrong mentioned was none other than Sun Chuanfang, the great warlord who had left power. When Wang Xiaolai initially supported the Northern Expedition, he was wanted by Sun Chuanfang, so there was a lot of friction between the two.
Not only Sun Chuanfang came, but also Wu Peifu and many "compartments" from Tianjin. In name, they came to "relieve the national crisis", but in fact they came under the guise of patriotism and wanted to take the opportunity to get back out of the mountain and reap benefits.
Nowadays, big warlords and big gangsters gathered in Luoyang. The place was full of demons, and Zhou Hexuan was somewhat interested in watching a good show.
After dilly-dallying for a long time, Zhou Hexuan, Huang Huangrong and others finally arrived in Luoyang City.
In Luoyang in the 1930s, the ancient buildings were extremely well preserved, making people feel as if they were transported back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. However, Luoyang is the provincial capital of Henan after all. After vigorous development by Wu Peifu, Feng Yuxiang and others, it already has an airport, railways, barracks, etc.
Facilities, and occasionally one or two modern buildings are mixed in with the ancient city, which feels indescribably weird.
The central government specially arranged hotels for people attending the national crisis meeting, and Zhou Hexuan met many famous people here.
For example, Hu Shi came, and his status was very high, equivalent to the number one conference representative in the cultural world. In addition, there were many democratic parties and people from various industries. Everyone was drinking, punching and playing mahjong in the hotel. It was noisy and noisy for half a day.